


Forbidden Feathers

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, Dark Castle, F/M, Fluff, enchanted forest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 22:19:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9462797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Having been forbidden from entering Rumpelstiltskin’s bathroom, Belle gets an unanticipated glimpse into it, and discovers something rather endearing.Written for the Monthly Rumbelling prompt: "Dark Castle Forbidden Room"





	

**Rated:** G

**Prompt:** Dark Castle Forbidden Room

**Summary:** Having been forbidden from entering Rumpelstiltskin’s bathroom, Belle gets an unanticipated glimpse into it, and discovers something rather endearing.

**Word Count:** 1684

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**Forbidden Feathers**

When Belle had first come to the Dark Castle, the ground rules had been set out very clearly. Over time, most of those rules had been relaxed in some shape or form as her friendship with Rumpelstiltskin grew and the relationship between them began to turn from master and maid into something a little bit… more. She was no longer required to dust any of his nicknacks, for example. Although Rumpelstiltskin had insisted that this was because she was so clumsy he was scared that she would break something and unleash some kind of terrible magic upon the world, Belle was rather more inclined to believe that it was because he wanted to avoid her going up ladders as much as possible. Likewise, the rule forbidding her from entering his tower had been lifted, and Belle liked to think that it was because he got lonely up there working at all hours and he liked to have her company as she cleaned and tidied in there, or sometimes took tea with him if his work was too important for him to leave.

There was one rule, however, that was still firmly in place. Belle was forbidden to go into Rumpelstiltskin’s bathroom. This was not any real cause for concern. It was not the only bath in the castle and she had access to her own, which the castle would always fill with fragrant soapy water whenever she wanted to take a bath. She had never really questioned this rule, and had not spared the locked door that led off Rumpel’s bed chamber a second glance in all the time that she had been cleaning the room. For all his appearance was strange and had been, at first glance, rather unnerving, Rumpel was very particular about it and it made sense that he wanted to keep his ablutions private. Perhaps there was something in his shimmering skin that necessitated various dangerous potions and lotions that he kept locked up.

Oh, Belle was curious, of course, and she would have given a great deal to be able to take a peek around the door, just to be able to say that she had seen every room in the castle and to see if it was as beautiful and full of mysteries as all the rest of the rooms. But she was not curious enough to attempt to break in. If there was a room with an unknown purpose in which Rumpel spent inordinate amounts of time, then she might have been more inclined to kneel at the keyhole and see what was going on in there, but since she had always known that it was a bathroom and that she just wasn’t allowed to go in there, there was no cause for intrigue.

Belle’s chance to see inside Rumpelstiltskin’s bathroom came in the most unexpected of ways.

It was a Friday afternoon in the middle of deep winter and Belle had finished her chores for the day. It had been a light workload ever since Rumpelstiltskin had said she no longer needed to do any laundry. His reasoning for this had been because he didn’t want her to slip on the frosty ground and fall headfirst into the wash tub and drown, because good help was so hard to find these days. Belle, however, could see through his bluster and was more convinced that it was because the last time she’d done the laundry outside, her fingers had gone blue and stiff from the cold and she’d been unable to even hold a book for a day afterwards.

Rumpelstiltskin was out doing some kind of deal in a far off land and had warned her that she should not expect him back until the next day, so Belle was making the most of having some time to herself, sitting curled up under a swathe of snuggly fur and woollen blankets on the chaise longue in the main hall and working her way through a very interesting, if very heavy, tome about a princess in a far off land who had escaped her arranged marriage by swapping places with one of the grooms in the castle stables, allowing her to get away and causing a bit of a shock for the husband once the wedding ceremony was over.

She had just reached for her cup of tea when an unexpected puff of smoke materialising in the centre of the room made her halt. She had become accustomed to Rumpelstiltskin’s habit of entering and leaving the castle without using the front door, but she hadn’t realised he would be back so soon and thought that this appearance might be an interloper.

When the smoke cleared, she could see that it was indeed Rumpel, and that he had come across a most unfortunate fate wherever it was that he had been going on his travels. His usually greeny-gold skin was tinged pale blue with the cold, and there were icicles forming in his hair and on his eyelashes. He was shaking like a leaf, and Belle leapt up from the couch, grabbing her pile of blankets and bringing them over to him.

“Rumpel! What on earth happened, are you all right?”

“Yes, yes,” he said through chattering teeth, trying to bat her away when she began to wrap the blankets around him efficiently, but shivering too much to have any effect. “The snow queen of Arendelle wasn’t particularly pleased by the terms of our deal.”

“She attacked you?” Belle pressed.

“No. Well. In a manner.” Rumpelstiltskin gave another shudder, although this one seemed to be part horror as well as cold. “I do not recommend getting into an altercation with a sentient snowman,” he muttered.

Belle made a mental note not to do such a thing and decided that it would probably be best not to push for any more details of the incident until Rumpel was in no further danger of freezing solid in his own main hall.

“You need a hot bath, and some tea,” she said, trying to guide him towards the door and the stairs.

“I’ll be fine,” Rumpelstiltskin snapped. “Just let me sit by the fire a while.”

“Rumpel, you have to get out of these wet clothes, you’ll catch a cold, or worse.”

“I’m the Dark One,” Rumpelstiltskin complained. “I don’t suffer the same diseases as you mortals…” The last word became a violent sneeze, followed in quick succession by two more violent sneezes, and Belle gave Rumpel a pointed look. He seemed to wilt visibly under the force of her no-nonsense glare, and he nodded forlornly.

“Bring some tea up please,” he sniffed, producing a handkerchief from nowhere and blowing his nose loudly before vanishing from the room with all the blankets still draped around him.

Belle busied herself with making a fresh pot of tea, and she took it upstairs, pausing in Rumpel’s bedroom doorway.

“Rumpel?” she called. The door was ajar a little and she pushed it open further to see that he was not inside. The bathroom door, however, was open for the first time and soft wisps of herbal-scented steam were curling out of the room.

“Rumpel?” she said again. “I’ve got your tea.”

“In here.”

Belle took a few measured steps across the bed chamber and peered around the open door, taking in the Dark Castle’s forbidden room.  

It was to all intents and purposes a perfectly ordinary bathroom, with a large tub in the centre full of hot water, thankfully soapy enough to preserve delicate sensibilities since Rumpel was submerged up to his chin. The thing that Belle had not expected was the ducks. Now, it was not unheard of for children to play with toy ducks in their bathtubs. Belle knew that these ducks came in many shapes and sizes.

Rumpelstiltskin, it appeared, had a collection of ducks in every shape and size and colouring imaginable. Some of them were richly decorated with spangles or real feathers, others were brightly coloured, others were made to look as lifelike as possible. They were sitting on every available shelf and surface in the room, and there was one bright yellow specimen floating on the surface of the water.

“Well, chop chop, it’ll be going as cold as I am.” Rumpel’s voice brought Belle back to the  present, and she hurried over with the tea. Rumpel was looking a much healthier colour as he took the proffered cup, and the frost in his hair had melted.

Belle took a step back, gazing around in wonder at the menagerie of ducks. So this was what he didn’t want her to find when he had forbidden her from coming into this room.

“Are you still here, dearie?” Rumpel asked, his bunged up nose lessening the effect of his words, slightly.

“The ducks,” Belle began, at a complete loss for what to say regarding them but feeling that some mention of them really needed to be made.

“The ducks are none of your concern,” Rumpel snapped. “Now go on. Shoo. Do… whatever it is that you do when I’m not here.”

Sensing that her presence was no longer required and was definitely not wanted, Belle made a tactical retreat from Rumpel’s rooms and returned to the main hall and her book, realising a little too late that her pile of snug blankets was now a pile of soggy blankets on Rumpel’s bathroom floor.

After that enlightening afternoon, the forbidden room was once more locked at all times as it had always been, and Belle did not mention the ducks again as she brought Rumpelstiltskin tea and soup as he recovered from his cold. As much as she wanted to ask him about his collection, he was the worst patient she’d ever had to nurse, and Belle had nursed many people in her father’s castle during the wars.

One evening, after he was fully recovered and back to his usual self, infuriating and endearing in equal measure, Belle had to smile when she entered her own chambers to find a bright yellow duck sitting on the edge of her bathtub...

 


End file.
